Last Shot: Surviving Cancer with Nine Inch Nails

[Editor's Note: Long-time concert photographer Andrew Youssef found out two years ago that he had stage IV colon cancer. In that time, he has continued to shoot tons of music events, on top of other freelance work and working a day job at a hospital, of all places. As he continues to fight for his life, this series allows him to tell his story in his own words.]

It is difficult to plan my life that far in advance. For example, I have the next nine days off of work but most of those will be absorbed between doctor's appointments, MRI of my back and potentially three days of cyberknife radiation to erase the metastasis in my spine. While I plan to enjoy one of two concerts in between, my schedule needs to be open just in case.

This is also coupled with the potential fact that I will probably not feel as great until I"m placed on a new chemotherapy regimen. It is a scary time for me.

One of the things that has kept me going is the fact I can still shoot concerts and see my favorite bands. As we all know, Nine Inch Nails has come out of a short retirement to release a new record, Hesistation Marks, on September 3. Out of all the bands I've seen in concert, there are few experiences that are intense as a Nine Inch Nails show. The first time I saw Nine Inch Nails was at the Warfield in San Francisco for the Downward Spiral warm up tour.

That concert is legendary in my mind because Nine Inch Nails was on the precipice of exploding and the intensity of that show was palpable. One of the memorable moments occurred during "March of the Pigs," when Trent Reznor tossed his microphone stand in the air behind him and it clocked his drummer in the head. After a short break, the bandaged drummer returned to the stage to close out the set just as fiercely as it had started. I was hooked from that point on.

Over the years though, Nine Inch Nails didn't tour as much until 2005, when the group paired up for a huge arena tour with Queens of the Stone Age and Autolux -- which had me in distorted guitar heaven. They continued to tour into 2006 and I strategically caught some shows in Boston, Charlotte and Raleigh. I figured I would go to as many shows as possible because the band hadn't toured in such a long time.